My life as a Missionary in the Santiago East, Chile Mission

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December 8, 2015 (Week 79)

This week, I’ll tell my stories by explaining my photos, because I did an unusually good job at taking photos this week.

The first story: Look who I found! ELDER CALL! During the Change Meeting that we have with the whole mission, Elder Smith, who used to be in my district during my first change as a district leader in Puente Alto and was sitting right behind me, tapped me on my shoulder and asked me if I knew the missionary beside him. I did not, and he told me that it was Elder Call. I thought for a moment, a bell ringing distantly in the back of my head, and then I remembered. The Call family, our long lost friends from my distant childhood in Utah, had a son in the same mission as me. I had completely forgotten that he was there.

Elder CJ Call

The second story: I cut my own hair! It really needed to be done, too. It was getting really long. I, having lost the opportunity to do it last P-day and not wanting to go another week to cut it, and also not wanting to spend the money to cut it, took a trimmer to it and buzzed the whole crop off. That was the first time I tried that since the MTC. It scared the crap out of me, but it didn’t turn out so bad. I have noticed that as missionaries get older, they start caring less and less about their hair. Does this mean that I am an “old” missionary?

The third story: I am now a year and 6 months old! I burned the ceremonial pants, which was an old pair that I had found in my old pension.

Finally, a few other stories. We finally had investigators accept some baptismal dates! I know that a missionary is not measured by numbers, but it still feels good to be preaching to investigators who actually want something from us. We currently are teaching a less active mother of 3, who’s two older daughters, Diana (16) and Francisca (11) accepted to be baptized on the 31 of December, 2016. I may or may not be here, but they are getting there.

Another investigator, named Matias, also wants to be baptized soon. He was been going to church for about 3 months without anyone inviting him. He lives in our ward boundry, but works from Monday to Friday in Viña. He has a girlfriend who is a member in another stake that has been an influence for him to investigate the church. He is a very cool person, and is investigating for other, more nobler reasons than just to please his girlfriend. He thinks well, and when we invited to be baptized, he readily agreed to when he knows that the Book of Mormon is true.

Another lady that we found named Patricia, has a son who wants to be baptized. Patricia is a less active who was baptized about 4 years ago, and except for not attending, has hardly left church. She wants to come back, and wants her 9 year old son to be baptized. The only problem is that she is divorced, so we have to make sure that she has full legal custody of her son. However, that is another family with a lot of potential.

Update on Alfonso: we took the Elders Quorum president to his house yesterday to look at his state of living. We have almost completely removed ourselves from the equation, and now have the ward taking care of him. We will regularily go by and look after him and keep ourselves informed on his well-being. He looks better. He has gotten a haircut and has shaved, and is making an effort to clean his house. We are hoping to be able to work with the ward to get him some pernament help, because the shelter that gives his food will close during January and Febuary, and the sister that is currently bringing him food will go on vacations on the 15th. If we don’t find help for him soon, he could still be in danger of starvation.